The major sections of the palace served to display the Asantehene's collection of arts and crafts whiles one part housed the wine store.

[6] In 1817, Thomas Edward Bowdich noted that all the captains were made to provide a significant amount from the public treasury for "adorning or enlarging his house.

According to scholar Prussin, the construction method described by Dupuis followed the Ashanti wattle technology despite the Asantehene's interest to imitate a European model.

[4][9] In 1841 during a visit to the Aban, Thomas Birch Freeman documented that; We entered a court yard, ascended a flight of stone steps, and passed through an ante-room into a small hall, in which were tastefully arranged on tables thirty-one gold-handled swords.

[12] In 1874 amid the British occupation of Kumasi, Winwood Reade of the London Times described the top floor as; The rooms upstairs remind me of Wardour Street.

[16] Wilks adds that destruction of the Aban and the sack of Kumasi possibly led to the elimination of Ashanti's Muslim annals on the ruling Oyoko dynasty.